For the second time in 10 years, the Portuguese music industry is dropping its CD-singles chart.
Evidence on the disastrous state of the singles market emerged this week, when the local IFPI affiliates stopped publishing singles sales figures. According to the trade body, singles sales in 2003 plummeted 50% from the previous year to 150,000 units — an all time-low.
“CD singles are more and more difficult to sell, and we had to take an option not to continue publishing the charts, which we had to pay for,” says Eduardo Simoes, director of the Portuguese Phonographic Assn. (AFP).
After a seven-year hiatus, the AFP relaunched the singles chart in July 2000 because of then-optimistic sales figures.
“The singles market crisis in Portugal is not new,” says EMI Portugal managing director David Ferreira. “CD singles never really happened in Portugal. The rise of the Internet has only made things worse for the format.”
